Casimir Herman
Casimir Herman, also known by his superhero alias Kabuto, is a student at Thomsen High and one of the current members of the Young Bloods. An established superhero even before the formation of the Young Bloods, Casimir spent much of his teenage life fighting gangs and criminals in his home town before arriving to San Diego. Biography Pre-YB Originally from a quaint coastal town, named New Lublin, in northern California he lived a relatively normal life with his big sister as his legal guardian. He went to school, caught bugs in nearby meadows, and went through the trials of puberty like any other American boy. His teachers and peers would have described him as a shy but kind boy who was strangely talkative. Once he entered middle school the town's peace was forever tainted as a powerful gang, the KP Soneras, decided to set up shop there. Drug addiction, theft, and gang violence spread like wildfire across the town. The town's relative isolation and the relatively low level danger the gang possessed meant no super really bothered to show up. Casimir had to learn how to fight and developed a crude fighting style that uses fast-paced repetitive punches combined with sways and weavings from light footwork which allowed him to be feared among the gangs by the time he entered high school. Once his reputation was set he thought of emulating the heroes of old, so he began the construction of his personally designed suit but his meager allowance meant it took months to get it into a presentable state. It was at the beginning of his junior year when his long suppressed powers awakened when he was overwhelmed by a group of the KP Soneras. As he was being held down and beaten, he lost consciousness but awoke and saw through the eyes of a hornet. The alien experience at first overwhelmed him, but as his instincts took over he commanded the hive and all nearby insects to the location of his body and attacked the gangsters. After they were incapacitated, he awoke covered in the swarm, but it dispersed immediatly on his command. He took the custom motorcycle from one of hospitalized gangsters that was lying around nearby since a "law abiding citizen" like him would be far more deserving of such a sweet ride. One week later all of his wounds and broken bones had healed just in time to don his finished costume that he spent finishing on while recovering. By the end of the semester, all of the gangs were broken up and he kidnapped all confirmed KP Soneras members tying them up and locked them together half naked in a semi-trailer he had purloined. After driving several miles into the Oregon he dumped them all on a random beach and drove away as fast as he could. The rest of the year he retired from superheroics and spent time with his friends and girlfriend. This changed in the last week of junior year, when a hideous mutant attacked the school searching for him, but it was killed without anyone seeing Casimir and every week during the summer a different mutant would attack him or his loved ones. The last week of July he found out one of the former gang members had the power to mutate people and was mutating kidnapped children for vengeance. He tracked the criminal scum down but he turned himself into a monster that was killed after a dreadful showdown with Casimir, leaving him nearly crippled afterwards. After a few weeks, he and his sister moved to San Diego for work related reasons on his sister's part and he was enrolled in Thomsen High as a normal human as he wants to keep his identity a secret. He is resentful that he has to spend his senior year in high school away but he makes sure to keep in touch with his old friends and girlfriend. Casimir was also thankful his body completely regenerated by the time school started so he won't be limited in restarting his superhero career. Powers and abilities Like most other members of the Young Bloods, Casimir has access to superhuman powers thanks to the Dragon Crystals. * Chassis of the Swarm: Has 10x the strength, speed, agility, endurance, durability, and healing factor of a peak human. His increased physical aptitude demands an enormous amount of food intake to keep up or else he starves quickly and can only go six days without food while a normal human can go up to 3 weeks. * Master of the Swarm: Through the eyes and antenna of insects under his control he can mentally picture what they can see and smell but it is difficult to interpret and he must concentrate to remember their experience. This also acts as a warning system of nearby danger. The range of controlling insects is limited to a circle around him of an area 30 km² and obviously he can only summon local insects so no Army Ants or Japanese Giant Hornets for him unless he visits their native land. And insects in the outer fringes of his range (beyond ~10km²) take longer to summon. * Tribute of the Swarm: As his body and mind continue to develop, they have begun the process of adopting the technique's of the insects he dominates over. Some are passive abilities while others require him to actively choose to activate the power. ** House of Arctiinae: Using the power of tiger moths, a series of sonic waves are created from Casimir's mouth that result in an illusionary afterimage that replicates the exact position that he was in when it started. The afterimage is stationary and only exists momentarily. ** House of Muscidae: Using the power from house flies, his brain gains a reaction speed of milliseconds that lets him know exactly what path he should move his body to avoid a current danger. The reaction is so quick it borders on instinct as opposed to any sort of active choice. ** House of Lampyridae: Using the power of fireflies, he produces a "cold light", with no infrared or ultraviolet frequencies on either his entire body or a select part. This chemically produced light may be yellow, green, or pale red. ** House of Carabidae: Using the power of bombardier beetles, his fists create a noxious and near-boiling chemical explosions that can reach over 200°F that leave 2nd degree burns but are not powerful enough to blow though walls. The blasts have a radius of one meter from the origin, that being his fists. ** House of Pentatomidae: Using the power of stink bugs, he can emit a rancid scent into his immediate vicinity that contains cyanide compounds. If sprayed directly on a foe's skin it can cause painful blisters. ** House of Bombycidae: Using the power of silk moths, he can shoot out strands of silk from his wrists that are flexible, absorbent, and adhesive. However, this silk is only half as strong as the silk from spiders. The silk shoots out at speeds up to 54 mph and up to a length of 12 meters. There is only a limited supply that can run out quickly and it takes a day for it to be recreated. In-game stats The stats below are from the Young Bloods RPG dev build version 0.5. Starting information Unlocked in: Wonder Island Level: 1 Starting stats (unmodified): * Health: 549 * Energy: 69 * Attack: 19 * Defense: 19 * Special Attack: 16 * Special Defense: 21 * Speed: 26 * Magic Power: 19 Starting equipment: Kabuto Suit Suit worn by the superhero Kabuto. Light and comfortable.' * Type: Bodywear * Effect: +20 Attack, +10 Defense, +5 Speed Skills '''Heavy Attack Use superhuman strength to strike an enemy. * Learned at: Level 1 * Type: Physical Attack * Cost: 10 Stamina * Damage: Atk*5 - Enemy Def*2 * Element: None * Accuracy: 100% * Additional effect: None Insect Swarm Summon a swarm of nearby insects to attack all enemies. * Learned at: Level 1 * Type: Special Attack * Cost: 10 Energy, 10 Stamina * Damage: 50 + Atk*6 - Enemy Sp.Def*3 * Element: None * Accuracy: 100% * Additional effect: None Swarm Shield Summon an insect swarm to shield you from incoming attacks for 5 turns. * Learned at: Level 1 * Type: Status * Cost: 6 Stamina, 6 Energy * Effect: Boost your Defense by two stages for 5 turns. Wasp Swarm Summon a swarm of wasps to annoy and attack the opponent. * Learned at: Level 3 * Type: Special Attack * Cost: 15 Energy * Damage: 100 + Atk*3 - Enemy Sp.Def*3 * Element: None * Accuracy: 70% * Additional effect: 50% chance to Paralyze. Overview Casimir fills the niche of a heavy tank, sporting high Attack, Defense and Special Defense output while also wielding fairly effective skills which strike the opponent's Special Defense, instead of ordinary Defense, making them a useful tool against dispatching of physically defensive opponents. However, he suffers from a few significant drawbacks before he can be considered top tier - many of his skills also come with a high cost, needing both energy and stamina, the former of which Casimir has a sore lack of, and he runs into the problem of lacking the most important part of any wannabe tank - self-recovery skills. Trivia